Revenue Minister Stuart Nash queries IRD over 'staff engagement rate' of 29%

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says he has talked over the staff engagement results with officials.

Low levels of staff engagement at Inland Revenue have raised the attention of Revenue Minister Stuart Nash.

The department said in its annual report that staff engagement was sitting at just 29 per cent.

Inland Revenue was not immediately able to clarify how the figure was calculated.

But spokeswoman Gay Cavill said it was based on a survey in May of 500 of its workers, of whom just under half responded.

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A new survey of its entire workforce started this week.

Nash said he had discussed the staff engagement figure with officials and knew Inland Revenue's managers were disappointed with the finding.

Inland Revenue commissioner Naomi Ferguson says it has saved $60m and raised an extra $90m as a result of its Business Transformation programme.

'It is not where they want it to be.'

But the department was undergoing a 'sustained period of change' that created its own set of challenges and which were reflected in the figure, he said.

Public Service Association national secretary Kerry Davies said there were problems at Inland Revenue and that boiled down to a shortage of staff.

That was undermining the department's ability to provide the quality service taxpayers expected, she said.

'Inland Revenue is going through an enormous transformation of its structure and services, and we are concerned this is being achieved by stretching permanent staff thin and filling the gaps either with low-paid contractors or not at all.'

In 2016, Inland Revenue announced plans to shed 1500 jobs, or about 25 per cent of its workforce, between 2018 and 2021 as it embarked on a $1.8 billion Business Transformation project to modernise and simplify the tax system.

It latest annual report showed its staff numbers had so far fallen from 5720 in 2016 to 5009 at the end of June.

When expressed in terms of 'full time equivalent' workers, its headcount shrunk from 5622 to 4888 over the period.

With the exception of staff engagement, Inland Revenue was hitting all of its top-level targets, according to its annual report.

Commissioner Naomi Fergusson said the Business Transformation project had resulted in $60m in administrative savings, and brought in $90m in extra revenue thanks to improved compliance.

Davies said staff would never feel properly engaged by a system that treats them 'as a cost to be cut, rather than an asset to be invested in'.

'If the department's Business Transformation programme has saved them $60m, this money should allow Inland Revenue to pay staff salary increases that keep them from falling behind other workers,' he said.

Nash said the transformation project was 'designed to ensure that not only is our tax system fair but it is administered fairly'.

'We want to ensure taxpayers receive their correct entitlements. We also want to make it easier for people to meet their obligations,' he said.

'The team at IRD are working hard on this and I am grateful for their efforts.'

Inland Revenue's contact centres were again rejecting incoming calls from people with queries about matters including income tax, KiwiSaver and taking on employees on Wednesday afternoon, with callers being warned of a wait time of more than 75 minutes on some other queries.